It isn't through exercise, dieting, or supplementation. The fitness industry, especially the fat loss industry, is a cesspool of pseudoscience and misinformation.
While the only way to lose weight, which is a caloric deficit is kept in obscurity - Useless and dangerous fat loss pills, gimmicky workout plans, and fancy diets are shoved down our throats.
Even coming to the caloric deficit, things like hours of exercise and restrictive diets are advocated.
These help for sure - but there's one highly effective method that is barely talked about.
I stumbled across this method when I noticed something - every time I came home for vacations, I'd gain weight and within just a few weeks of getting back to college, I'd lose it all.
Turns out, I was unknowingly exploiting this obscure fat loss method in college.
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the number of calories you burn in a day.
If your calorie intake is lesser than this, you'll lose weight.
To lose weight - you need to either increase your TDEE and/or decrease your calorie intake.
Exercise, especially cardio, achieves the former and dieting the latter.
It's the last one - NEAT that we are interested in.
Remember how I would mysteriously lose weight in college?
It was because of a ramped-up NEAT - my college campus is 300+ acres and by walking to class, the gym, canteens, or the grocery store, I'd unconsciously get in around 5 to 6 km of walking every single day!
NEAT can account up to 50% of your TDEE and increasing it is the most effective way to lose weight.
Ever since I've discovered NEAT, I've been on a constant quest to find sneaky and easy ways to increase it.
I love conversing and it's not uncommon for my phone conversations to stretch to 3 and even 4 hours.
By walking instead of lying on the couch, my NEAT's shot to the moon.
Irrespective of how long you converse, walk - any walking is better than no walking.
Unless you're buying a ton load of things, go for the basket.
As a writer and software developer, I'm glued to my desk, so I do this all the time.
Not only does this increase your NEAT, but it also prevents stiff joints and chronic neck and back pain.
If this is too cumbersome - take the elevator one floor below or above your target floor.
With my hostel elevator going only to floors 3 and above and my floor being the second, I used to do this all the time.
The first few weeks after I learned how to drive, I took my car everywhere - even to the milk shop a stone's throw away.
Not only will this make you walk every time you have to check your phone, but it will also dissuade you from unnecessarily checking it.
With the maid dismissed, to help my mom, I took up the duty of mopping the floor.
Thanks to all the dust that settles in my road-facing room, I've to clean it every morning.
Ever since I got my doorway pullup bar, I've made it a norm to bang out a few reps each time I pass it.
If you don't have one, no worries - drop and get in a few pushups or pump some quick squats at different times in a day.
Both are two-wheelers but there's one major difference - while one uses petrol for fuel, the other uses you for fuel.
Not only do they help you get in some walking but are also great for digestion. There are few things better than a post-dinner terrace stroll enjoying the starlit sky.
I think it's a smart way to get some more walking in.
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